Whiting Won’t Return as Chatsworth Coach

Bill Whiting, who led the Chatsworth High boys’ basketball team to an undefeated Northwest Valley Conference record in his first season as coach, will not return next season.

Junior guard Jerome Joseph said Whiting met privately with Joseph last week to inform him of his resignation.

“It wasn’t a total surprise. I had a feeling it might happen,” Joseph said.

Whiting, an off-campus coach, replaced Sandy Greentree, who resigned after the 1994 season. Chatsworth, which lost to Fremont in the City Section 4-A quarterfinals, was the only team to place two players on The Times’ All-Valley team. Both Joseph and center Eddie Miller will be seniors next season.

Before taking over at Chatworth, Whiting was an assistant at Occidental College and the head coach at Eagle Rock High.

Baseball

The man charged with illegally taping a phone conversation with Simi Valley High baseball Coach Mike Scyphers has been scheduled for arraignment April 27 in Ventura County Municipal Court.

Ray Rainer of Simi Valley was charged last month with recording confidential communications, a high-grade misdemeanor.

If found guilty, Rainer could face a fine of up to $2,500, a year in jail, or both.

Rainer taped a September phone conversation with Scyphers in which the coach allegedly tried to persuade him to send his twin sons, Matt and Mike, to Simi Valley instead of Royal.

Rainer has told The Times he did not tell Scyphers he was recording the conversation.

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An already depleted Cal State Northridge baseball pitching staff has suffered another setback.

Northridge scrapped plans to make up a nonconference game against Pepperdine that was rained out in March because the Matadors are short on pitching.

Right-hander Carlos Velazco (1-2) is out a minimum of two weeks with an injured right shoulder. Zeke Barrios (3-0) was suspended when he failed to meet a team requirement.

Coach Bill Kernen requires that pitchers run three miles in under 21 minutes and Barrios did not. He is suspended until he does.

Instead of playing Pepperdine, Kernen has elected to save his pitching staff for a crucial Western Athletic Conference series against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo starting April 21.

Northridge and Cal Poly will play three consecutive doubleheaders to make up for an earlier series scheduled at San Luis Obispo that was postponed because of rain.

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Senior pitcher Jeremy Daum has quit the Quartz Hill High baseball team, Coach Mike Nielson said.

Daum was 2-0 with a 1.85 earned-run average in two starts as the No. 3 starter for the Rebels, the top-ranked team in The Times’ area poll. Nielson said Daum was upset over playing time.

Highland catcher Eric Torrez will miss the rest of the season after suffering a broken ankle in Friday’s game against Quartz Hill.

Track and Field

A series of nagging injuries prevented Kristin Dunn of Cal State Northridge from starting her senior track season until late March, but the delay hasn’t hurt her performances. She set a school record of 176 feet 4 inches to win the javelin in Saturday’s meet against UCLA and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo at Drake Stadium.

Dunn’s effort, which came in her third meet of the season, broke the previous Northridge record of 176-3 set by Connie Gassen in 1977.

She also exceeded the automatic qualifying standards for both the NCAA Division I (169-1) and the USA Track & Field outdoor championships in June.

Swimming

Jennifer Parmenter won the 100-yard butterfly at the Southern California Swimming Short Course 14-and-under Junior Olympic championships at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach Monday.

Parmenter, 14, swimming for Canyons Aquatic Club, won two events at the senior national championships last month.

On Sunday, Parmenter won the 100 freestyle and 200 butterfly.

Matthew Jensen, 10, of Canyons won the 10-and-under 50 butterfly and Tyler Clark, 10, of Canyons finished first in the 10-and-under 200 individual medley and the 200 freestyle.

Golf

The Ladies Professional Golf Assn. will continue its 14 clinic series on April 17 with a stop at the Spanish Hills Golf and Country Club in Camarillo.

The event will feature personalized instruction by 25 LPGA teaching and club professionals, including Kathy Whitworth and Jane Blalock.

Information: 1-800-262-7888.

Softball

Sylmar High was forced to forfeit its High Desert tournament softball game against Canyon Tuesday because it couldn’t provide transportation for the team.

Canyon Coach Greg Hayes said his team was frustrated by the cancellation.

“We really need to play,” he said. “We’ve just lost three tough games in a row. I called the tournament director to see if anybody wanted to play a doubleheader. He said he couldn’t work it out.”

Miscellany

Harvard-Westlake gymnastics (3.38 grade-point average) and Palmdale boys’ volleyball (3.51) received academic awards from the Southern Section. The following athletes were honored for having 4.0 GPAs: Mike Lilienthal (Moorpark), Antonio Arce (Palmdale), John Dinkler (Ventura), Judy Hung (La Canada), Sarah Phelps (Palmdale), Jennifer Barefoot (Royal), Julia Margenat (Ventura), Joanna Mazur (Westlake).

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Contributing: Dana Haddad, Michael Lazarus, John Ortega, Bryan Rodgers.